Clár Ní Chonghaile
04 April 2022
Stalin 2.0? Putin might follow the tyrant’s playbook but he’s no copycat
The shadow of Joseph Stalin hangs heavy over Vladimir Putin’s Russia. But is Putin actually more dangerous – if not statistically more murderous – than the former Soviet leader?
Read the full article23 March 2022
Death by a thousand cuts: The decline of the UK as an aid superpower
When Boris Johnson’s government cut the aid budget in 2020, it dealt a devastating blow to charities and the people they support, but did it also sound the death knell for the UK’s role as an aid superpower?
Read the full article18 March 2022
War and Want: Conflict in Ukraine threatens a food catastrophe far beyond its borders
The vicious conflict in Ukraine could lead to even more deaths from hunger far beyond the country’s borders as grain exports from the region grind to a halt and global food prices soar
Read the full article16 March 2022
Why did it take so long to bring Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori home?
There is joy and relief that the British citizens are finally on their way back from years of detention in Iran. But after Britain reportedly finally paid the debt it has owed Iran for decades, what was it all for?
Read the full article14 March 2022
The Ukrainian writer training a brutally clear lens on the horror of war
As Russian forces pound his country’s cities, towns and villages, Serhiy Zhadan’s The Orphanage offers a poignant portrayal of what such an onslaught feels like, and a reminder that Ukraine has been living with conflict for years
Read the full article12 March 2022
The empathy gap: After Ukraine, we must think again about the refugees we have ignored
It is time to question our biases and demand our governments are consistent in how they deal with everyone seeking a safe haven
Read the full article07 March 2022
Party? What party? Johnson seeks political makeover but is change just skin-deep?
The war in Ukraine has pushed #Partygate off the front pages but Boris Johnson’s attempts to reinvent himself as a trustworthy statesman are still overshadowed by past misdemeanours, with the police yet to report on whether he broke lockdown rules
Read the full article04 March 2022
Ukraine’s Churchill, his interpreter and the legacy of the Nuremberg trials
The tear-filled voice of a Ukrainian interpreter translating Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech has shone a spotlight on the skilled linguists who bring the words of world leaders to us in real-time
Read the full article27 February 2022
Waive visas not flags, Johnson urged as Ukrainians flee Russian invasion
Anger grows as the UK government appears to drag its feet over waiving visa requirements for Ukrainians fleeing bullets and missiles
Read the full article24 February 2022
Sinn Féin’s borderless ambition
Having reinvented itself, the party is now poised to redraw the political map of the island of Ireland
Read the full article23 February 2022
Boris Johnson will be damaged even further if he continues to ignore the Tories’ record on Russian money
The shadows of the heavily redacted, much delayed 2020 Russia Report and London’s reputation as a laundromat for dirty money are clouding the prime minister’s insistence that Britain is “out in front” in this global crisis
Read the full article16 February 2022
British diplomacy: All style and no substance, but ineptitude may not be the real problem
Britain has seemed like a court jester on the world stage during the Ukraine crisis: prancing around and making a lot of noise to little effect. But Boris Johnson’s government has also been undermined abroad by its failure to crack down on the dirty Russian money already sloshing around in its system
Read the full article09 February 2022
Jacob Rees-Mogg’s new job is a joke, but this farce is a fig-leaf for tragedy
Only a government completely divorced from reality could appoint a minister for Brexit Opportunities, you might think. But perhaps the truth is darker than the unicorn gifs and JRM-chaise-longue memes would have us believe
Read the full article03 February 2022
The Great British Shake-Off: Global Britain’s diplomacy strikes a sour note
As Europe grapples with one of its gravest political crises since the end of the Cold War, one might expect Global Britain, free at last from the suffocating embrace of the EU, to be leading efforts to prevent war between Russia and Ukraine. If you believe Boris Johnson, it is. Others are not so sure
Read the full article03 February 2022
Lies, damn lies and statistics: How strong is the UK economy, really?
With British political life paralysed by an endless debate over the prime minister’s honesty and integrity, what to make of Boris Johnson’s declaration that the UK is the fastest growing economy in the G7?
Read the full article03 February 2022
The 27: “They are dying, but they don’t know this yet.”
A special investigation into the lives of the people who drowned in the Channel.
Read the full article01 February 2022
When they go high, we go low: Johnson’s Savile slur plumbs desperate political depths
Boris Johnson’s attempt to blame Labour leader Keir Starmer for failures to prosecute serial sex offender Jimmy Savile was the political equivalent of a drunk trying to throw a punch, only to miss, stumble and fall on his face in the gutter.
Read the full article01 February 2022
The Rogan files: Testing the limits of free speech in a post-truth world
Spotify’s decision to add advisories to coronavirus content to counter misinformation shows the power of one man’s podcast but also raises wider questions about the spread of reliable information in a multi-platform world.
Read the full article24 January 2022
Hostages of fortune: Those paying the real price for Partygate
As Tory infighting and political psychodramas dominate British media, the true cost of this government’s descent into booze-fuelled farce is being paid by British citizens, at home and abroad.
Read the full article12 January 2022
A non-apology for a non-party
Boris Johnson finally breaks his silence on THAT party only to prove once again that the truth is the first casualty when you seek to remake the world in your image.
Read the full article11 January 2022
The party’s over for Boris Johnson but we all have the hangover
A superficial prime minister is in the dock – again – for a transgression that stems from the fatal flaw that has defined his career: arrogance.
Read the full article04 January 2022
Johnson in trouble, more bank holidays and a World Cup: What to look forward to in 2022
After the two years we’ve had, raising a glass on New Year’s Eve felt almost like an exercise in universe-baiting. But there are reasons to be hopeful over the next 12 months.
Read the full article17 December 2021
It’s Teenage Kicks for Johnson
You’ve got to assume at this point that a fair few people in Britain, in parliament, and yes, even in the Tory party, are angry with Boris Johnson. But one group is really vexed and they Just. Can’t. Even.
Read the full article17 December 2021
“Boris Johnson, the party’s over”
The Liberal Democrats’ upset victory in the North Shropshire by-election, a seat the Tories held for nearly two centuries, deals a huge blow to the prime minister and is a stark indictment of a political system that has become a “nightly soap opera of calamity and chaos”.
Read the full article16 December 2021
The twenty faces who have the power to make or break 2022
Liz Truss, Yolanda Díaz, Valérie Pécresse, Mamata Banerjee, Andrew Bailey. Just some of the names we think will make the headlines in the next 12 months ... for better or worse
Read the full article03 December 2021
Could Ethiopia disintegrate? Thinking the unthinkable in the Horn of Africa
A one-time economic tiger and a linchpin of stability in a fragile region, Ethiopia now stands on the brink of disaster. What happened to Africa’s oldest independent country?
Read the full article02 December 2021
Boris Johnson says Britain is a world leader in sharing vaccines. It’s yet another lie
As Omicron spreads Christmas fear, our prime minister grapples with the truth and the world grapples with severe shortages in solidarity.
Read the full article25 November 2021
The Big Picture: A new wave of protests across Europe
Over the weekend, bicycles were burnt and rocks were thrown in protest against increasing Covid restrictions.
Read the full article24 November 2021
There may be (more) trouble ahead: Six new pitfalls for Boris Johnson
Christmas is coming and people are wondering if the PM’s goose, instead of getting fat, may be getting cooked. What else could possibly go wrong?
Read the full article19 November 2021
Is Shell’s UK move really a victory for Brexit?
This tale of two cities is less about a booming Brexit Britain and more about a government that continues to favour oil and gas firms even as Boris Johnson says the planet is at “one minute to midnight”.
Read the full article15 November 2021
This cop-out is another failure for the prime minister and another tragedy for the planet
The summit failed to offer any immediate hope to those on the front lines of climate change.
Read the full article15 November 2021
Triggering Article 16 set to create fresh Brexit crisis which won’t improve lives across Irish Sea
As the UK threatens to trigger Article 16, raising the prospect of a trade war with the EU, people on the island of Ireland wonder if any of this political theatre is really about what’s best for them.
Read the full article